


Gals Being Pals

by arysthaeniru



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: F/F, Female-Centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-17
Updated: 2015-10-17
Packaged: 2018-04-26 18:24:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5015344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arysthaeniru/pseuds/arysthaeniru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's more than one stage to a relationship. It's not easy being a girl inside this man's world, but they'll make it work. They always have.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gals Being Pals

**Author's Note:**

> Written for tsuminah's birthday, (6/6) and she asked for femslash, so I thought I'd oblige!

There was a loud bang from the outside and An’s eyes rose from the scattered papers on her desk (which she had honestly been glazing over for the last half hour), to focus on the frosted glass of her office door. The silhouette of a tall girl with bouncing pigtails clarified for a few moments before the door burst open, and a distinctly bad-tempered Tomo flounced into the room, stopping only to drop a large briefcase on An’s desk, before she flopped on the large sofa in the corner. 

“I am never doing that shit again.” Tomo said, her face pouty, as she brushed back her bangs and adjusted her hair, her coloured nails glinting in the reflecting tube-lights of their office

“I take it that it didn’t go well?” asked An, as she slowly unclipped the briefcase. But no, the briefcase was filled with the right documents. Everything that their client had thought had been stolen was right there. Wasn’t that a mission success?

“I got the stuff.” said Tomo, her voice clipped and her jaw clenching. “But what about my dignity? I had to _run_ after those street kids! In broad daylight! In heels! And then I couldn’t catch up with them, so I had to knock them out with projectile shoe motion!”

An pressed a hand to her mouth to suppress her inappropriate giggles, and leant back in her comfy office chair. She could almost see the headline tomorrow: _Famed Detective Osakada Tomoka Assaults Children To Achieve Ends: Are Women Suited for the Private Eye Business?_ And the answer was overwhelmingly yes, despite what the media wanted to say. Their success rate was overwhelmingly larger than other private investigation agencies, even if they used very unorthodox methods to get results. 

“Don’t you laugh!” Tomo said, jabbing a finger in An’s direction, as she unclipped her heels and her suspenders from her cute suit, throwing them unceremoniously towards the corner of the room. “I’d like to see you do better.”

“I would have worn trainers and socks.” said An, simply, a light smirk playing on her face. The look of fury she received in response managed to startle a laugh from An. Tomo was _cute_ when she was mad. It was always nicer to watch Tomo unleash her fury on other people, of course, but sometimes Tomo needed to be lightly teased to loosen her up a little. 

An rolled over to Tomo, and pressed a kiss to the tip of Tomo’s cute button-nose. “Relax, sweet-peach. We did it.”

“You mean I did it.” murmured Tomo, lifting an eyebrow, in an unimpressed challenge.

Shrugging lightly, An reached out to tuck a strand of Tomo’s hair behind her ear, lingering slightly on the soft expanse of skin under Tomo’s ear which connected to her throat. Tomo swallowed, her throat muscles shifting as her gaze fell to where An’s hand was. She’d never claimed to play fair. “I had to deal with reading all of the fraud regarding wills, give me some credit, that’s just as arduous.” An murmured, letting her eyelashes flutter a little. “At least you got to go outside.”

“My _new_ high heels. the ones that Sakuno bought me.” complained Tomo, but her protest sounded less frustrated, and more just for the sake of it. An knew that she’d managed to calm her down a bit more, then. An leant forward, pulling Tomo into a slow sensual kiss, which Tomo happily returned, her nails curling around An’s neck, ruffling through An’s short hair. 

“Are you curling it soon?” asked Tomo, as he pressed kisses down An’s jaw as An slowly unbuttoned the cute, flowery blouse that Tomo had chosen. 

“So much effort.” said An, with a shrug, as she managed to pull off the shirt from Tomo’s shoulders, admiring the expanse of smooth, lightly tanned skin that she could now see. No matter how often she and Tomo managed to relax and just enjoy each other, she always managed to marvel at her luck. “Maybe if there’s a real occasion, like with Kippei’s birthday.”

“But it looks so good on you…” said Tomo, raking her nails lightly over An’s throat, which sent a shiver down An’s spine, and Tomo grinned, in anticipation. Damn, her partner was sexy and completely knew it. 

An played with the strap of Tomo’s bra as she pulled Tomo up for another long, slightly sloppy kiss. Tomo’s pink lipstick was rubbing off on An’s lips, something that An always enjoyed, watching her beautiful Tomo slowly unknot herself from the trappings of her makeup. “The bra’s nice, did you get it from somewhere special?” asked An, as she let Tomo pull off her polo shirt. 

“Mmhmm, Sakuno had to get some stuff for some modelling session and she was mortified for buying all that stuff. She let me wild with her credit card, and yeah…” Tomo’s smudged lips curved up into a purely mischievous grin. “She didn’t mind too much, she enjoyed having someone in the dressing rooms with her.”

An snorted, softly as Tomo’s hands traced the outline of An’s breasts, brushing lightly, like a tease. “That poor girl.” Just as Tomo’s hands snaked back to unclip her own white bra, the phone loudly rang, startling Tomo’s hands, leaving a scratch mark across An’s back. Wincing and in a bad mood, An stalked up from her chair and picked up the wall phone. “Yes?” she hissed. 

“Sorry,” said Katsuo, not sounding cowed in the slightest by her bad mood, “There’s a gentleman waiting for you in entrance. He says he has a case for you and that it’s urgent and can’t wait until tomorrow.”

An clicked her tongue and pulled a face at Tomo, who with a long groan, started to put her blouse back on. “Alright, send him in, but tell him to give us a minute.”

She could almost see Katsuo smirking from the other side, and it made An roll her eyes. “Very good, Tachibana-san.” he answered, and the phone clicked off. Tomo threw An’s shirt towards her and An pulled it on quickly, making sure to rub off the remnants of Tomo’s lipstick from her mouth. Tomo put her suspenders back on, though she left her heels where they were, and simply retouched her makeup in the mirror hanging on the wall. 

“Business again, then.” said An, with a slight growl of frustration and Tomo shrugged, as she patted down her flyaways. 

“Cheer up, when he leaves, we can head home and try it somewhere with more privacy.” said Tomo, scrunching up her button nose as she took a seat on the edge of An’s desk, looking carelessly gorgeous. An had an inkling that she was probably going to spend more time focusing on Tomo than their customer, but that wasn’t such a bad thing. That was why there were two of them in the first place. 

(X)

The problem with having a major crush on one of your tennis opponents was that you couldn’t ever take your eyes off them when playing. Not so bad at first glance; having the eye on your opponent was good for when they were serving, but when you _continued_ to stare at them instead of the ball, it lead to some embarrassing, out-of-character unforced errors on your record.

“What’s the matter, Chitose?” asked her coach, as she took a break, after having pitifully lost the first three games. “You were on great form this whole tournament and this is awful.”

Miyuki murmured something about yips, inbetween gulping down huge mouthfuls of water, but her focus was on Ryuuzaki Sakuno, who was removing her headband to towel her head down. Her sweaty skin was much more of a pleasant distraction than her coach berating her on her form. The problem had been meeting Ryuuzaki in the semifinals instead of the first couple of rounds as was the usual case. 

Now people knew that Miyuki’s game was strong, especially after the last three or four tournaments without Ryuuzaki competing, where she’d won without a problem, and it was so obvious that her problem was just against Ryuuzaki. Maybe people would just chalk it up to her being afraid of Ryuuzaki than being infatuated by the way her braids looked in the sun and the way her soft, determined voice made Miyuki’s knees buckle. Miyuki swallowed heavily, adjusted her visor and stalked back out to the field. 

She was a _good_ tennis player! She’d given Dorobo-nii-chan a good run when they’d had a friendly match a couple of years ago, which had gotten her on the world’s radar, and she was tall and long and lean, which made her serves stronger than many of the players on the circuit. But short, cute, and technically stable Ryuuzaki Sakuno managed to make her falter every time. Ryuuzaki smiled softly from the other side, as she watched Miyuki pull out a tennis ball from her skort, and the smile made Miyuki fumble with the ball, until it tumbled from her hand. Feeling her cheeks burn red, Miyuki pulled out another one, and studiously avoided Ryuuzaki’s gaze as she pulled up into a serve. 

She was at Wimbledon’s semi-finals, the furthest along in a tournament she’d gotten since her debut three years ago, at the age of sixteen. She couldn’t screw it up here. She had to beat Ryuuzaki and get to the finals, and challenge one of the tall, muscled girls from East Europe and make her name known. Chitose Miyuki, one of the best girls tennis players at such a young age! That was the only way to make Sen-nii happy with her.

With eyes burning with determination, Miyuki launched into one of her powerful serve. She could hear the crowd gasp and she grinned, cockily, as she dived for the next shot. Eyes on the ball. It was just another tennis player across the net from her. Just like Dorobo-nii-chan or the like. It didn’t matter that Ryuuzaki was smiling happily and it certainly didn’t matter that her skin was glowing in the summer sun, and it wasn’t Miyuki’s concern about the fact that she could definitely see her pink, childish panties from under the edge of the sk—

“Out!” called the umpire and Miyuki groaned as she stared at where the ball was currently lodged against the back wall of the stadium. This was _tennis_ , not baseball. Idiot.

…who was she kidding, she couldn’t win this match.

Miyuki made a loud groan, but prepared the serve again. “Fighting, Miyuki-chan!” she murmured to herself, and launched into a serve. She had to put up a bit of a fight anyway, didn’t she? Otherwise Ryuuzaki wouldn’t respect her in the slightest as an opponent. And she didn’t think she could stand to disappoint Ryuuzaki.

Still, as the game rapidly fell to Ryuuzaki, Miyuki felt her shoulders slump. This was almost worse than yips. At least with yips, there was an actual reason for her being a complete dumbstruck idiot. A medical reason. This was just stupid. Loads of people managed to be functional and coherent around their crushes. Why couldn’t Miyuki play at all?

As she stomped over to the other side of the net, feeling very frustrated, Ryuuzaki brushed past her, their sweaty skin almost sticking to each other. “Try to stay confident, Chitose-chan.” She murmured, in Japanese. “The more frustrated you get about the unforced errors, the harder they get to overcome.” Ryuuzaki smiled, gently, brushing a few strands of baby hair away from her face, as she took her position on the other side of the court, and Miyuki could only stare at Ryuuzaki.

That had been…awfully kind of her. Miyuki could almost feel herself falling for the elder girl more with those kindly words. Ryuuzaki arched into a graceful serve and Miyuki darted after it, mulling over the words. Don’t get frustrated. It was easy for Ryuuzaki to say that. It wasn’t so easy in practice. Especially when she was so angry at herself for not being able to showcase her best aspects in front of the person from whom she wanted respect the most.

Miyuki backhanded a ball furiously across the court, and her eyebrows slunk upwards as it flew by so quickly that Ryuuzaki didn’t even notice it. “In.” called the umpire and the crowd went wild. Miyuki laughed, in disbelief, but settled in back for the next serve. Despite the shouting from her coach, Ryuuzaki wasn’t calling for a challenge, and Miyuki saw it as a sign of goodwill. She had to return it now by playing at her best.

Hey, maybe if she actually won this, she could work up the courage to ask Ryuuzaki out for dinner!

Miyuki smiled, a little self-deprecatingly as the next ball came to her. Okay, maybe that was a little bit too much too expect, but a girl could dream, right?

(X)

Yukimura Minoru yawned, loudly, as she turned over on the bed, her dress slinking upwards a bit as she adjusted herself on her back, to better stare up at the modelling magazine. Okaa-san had mentioned something about her summer collection being in here, and Minoru wanted to pay attention to it and critique it properly, so she could get that look of approval that made any bad day feel better.

“Oi, Min-chan?”called Seiichi, sticking his head into her room, his hair all pulled back from his face by a headband. It made him look even more like a girl than usual. “I’m heading out. Genichirou and Kura are almost here, so I’m going to meet them halfway.”

“Mmmm.” She said, just staring up at the magazine. “Lock up when you leave?”

“Yeah, of course. Stay safe, I’ll probably not be back until like midnight or something, so order yourself dinner if okaa-san’s late, okay?”

Minoru just nodded, as she flicked a page, and made a vague motion of goodbye, before the whole sentence fully registered. Kura was short for Shiraishi Kuranosuke, which meant—“Hey, are Gen-nii-chan and Shiraishi bringing people along?” she asked, quirking an eyebrow upwards, as she pushed herself upwards.

Seiichi smirked. “Why, you eager to see Saaassuukke?” he drawled, hanging off the edge of her doorway.

Minoru rolled her eyes, and tucked the magazine away on her bedside as she adjusted her hair. “He’s like nine, no thanks? I meant Yukari-chan.”

“Probably.” Seiichi shrugged. “Just go down and watch TV or something, and if she is here, she’ll ring the doorbell.”

Minoru pulled a face. “But that’s _work_.”

“Tough luck, chubby.” said Yukimura, as he swept away. Minoru grabbed her pillow and threw it down the stairs forcefully, aiming straight for his big, infuriating hea-–He stepped out of the way, last minute and caught it before it hit the floor. “Careful~” he trilled, as he put on his shoes and headed out of the door, waving cheerily behind him. Minoru growled, but once he disappeared, she exhaled a little and glanced down at the pillow that lay on the edge of the banister.

Well, she _was_ up now; it couldn’t hurt to go and wait for Yukari-chan. Minoru tugged her dress down properly and pushed herself up on her tiptoes to reach the top shelf of the cupboard for some cereal. That was the problem with inheriting most of her Dad’s looks, instead of her Mum’s, she was stuck being short and chubby. It wasn’t fair that Seiichi had got to look glamourous like Okaa-san, when she just looked plain. Okay, that was exaggerating a little, but she was neither glamourous nor cute and it was driving Minoru crazy. She knew that Okaa-san was a little disappointed that as Minoru grew up, she had lost most of the things that her made her easy to stick on the covers of magazines.

It just wasn’t fair. Seiichi was perfect for modelling Okaa-san’s stuff and he didn’t even want to. Minoru scowled as she poured out a large helping of comfort cereal. It just made her mad and want to return back to her math textbooks, honestly.

Just then, the door rang, loudly, almost startling Minoru into dropping the bowl of cereal. Luckily, she made a quick save, and caught the bowl before it upended itself over the smooth tiles of the floor. Sighing a little in relief, Minoru unlocked the door, to let a smiling Shiraishi Yukari in.

Now Yukari-chan, _she_ managed to make ‘cute’ work. From her curly hair, to her slightly chubby cheeks, from her Lolita blouse and her cute, buckled shoes, she just oozed cute, as she waved at Minoru. “Sorry to impose again.” she said, with a laugh. “But Kura-rin’s one of the worst weekend babysitters ever.”

“It’s hardly like we need to be babysat at this age, he’s just taking the opportunity to play Seii before Seii goes pro.” said Minoru, with a shrug, as she invited Yukari-chan to the living room.

Yukari-chan shrugged. “I suppose.” she said, hesitantly, before smiling sunnily again, as she scooched up into Minoru’s side, as the TV flickered on. “But one of these weekends, Yukimura-san will come to Osaka instead, and you can stay at our place instead of me always imposing here.”

Minoru leant her head on Yukari-chan’s shoulder, relishing in the feeling of Yukari-chan’s silky hair against the back of her neck. “It’s not imposing. I like having you here because you’re one of my friends.” Friend, object of vaguely inappropriate feelings, same difference, right?

“I just always feel like I’ve got to pay you back somehow.” murmured Yukari-chan, as she fished out some of the cereal parts from Minoru’s bowl and popped them past her glossy lips. “Even it’s irrational.”

“You bet that it’s irrational.” said Minoru, nudging Yukari-chan insistently with her toes. “Friends do stuff for each other.”

Yukari-chan twitched and her fake nails came forward to prod Minoru’s thigh, clearly indignant. “But what do I ever end up doing for you? It’s only me taking and taking and taking.” Minoru made a vague noise of protest, but Yukari-chan pouted. “It’s true! What do you want from me? Seriously! Anything?”

Minoru shifted a little as Yukari-chan pressed closer to her, but she seemed relentless as she prodded Minoru more. “I—ahh, I dunno! Lollipops? Takoyaki? Those cute erasers for pencil ends? A kiss-“ She broke off then, turning bright red. That hadn’t supposed to slip out.

But Yukari-chan smiled, widely. “Well, I can get all of those for you when I go back home, but I can give you the last one right now.” she said, the pads of her thumbs coming up to stroke Minoru’s cheekbones. Minoru felt herself shift a little uncomfortably.

“You don’t have to, I mean, that was stupid…”

“I want to.” interrupted Yukari-chan, as she rearranged them to be kneeling on Minoru’s couch. “Should I put on some lipgloss, or do you prefer it less slippery?”

Minoru shrugged. It wasn’t like she’d been kissed before, and the completely unabashed way that Yukari-chan was doing this was throwing Minoru off. She _really_ hoped that this wasn’t because Yukari was just trying to pay her back for being a friend; that would majorly suck.

Still as Yukari-chan leant in and pressed her pink, plump lips against Minoru’s and slipped her slender fingers into Minoru’s curly black hair, Minoru could only feel a vague sense of success as she pulled Yukari-chan closer and deeper into the kiss.

"That was nice. You’re a good kisser, Minoru-chan” said Yukari-chan as she pulled away but leant her forehead on Minoru’s, breathing heavily, her cheeks finally tinged a bit pink. Her breath smelled like strawberries and milk tea. “Another one?”

“Well, of course.” said Minoru, leaning in again, feeling a smile curve across her lips.


End file.
